Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates generally to networked gate machines gaging the condition of unmanned platforms, such as drones, unmanned aerial vehicles, etc.
Related Art
Commercial unmanned platforms are growing both in diversity, projected applications, and endurance requirements. One example is physical infrastructure (e.g. power generation and transmission) inspection. As availability needs grow for power, the demand for continuous inspection increases. This, in turn, puts increased reliability demands on unmanned inspection platforms tasked with looking after transmission lines, for example, in hard-to-access spots.
Similar things can be said about other uses of unmanned platforms such as freight transportation and agriculture. As demands for a continuous “belt” of faster freight movement increase, the reliability demands on unmanned freight transportation platform increase at an ever faster pace. In addition, the long-range, beyond-line-of-sight nature of many of these uses necessitates a self-contained means to monitor and safely control platform operation.
Current platform equipment oversight, however, has not progressed and is not projected to catch up sufficiently to these demands. Accordingly, there is a need for an embedded oversight mechanism that looks after the condition of unmanned platform systems and precludes them from ever reaching potential failure. In particular, there is a need for a mechanism that “shadows” system operation. This “shadowing” mechanism must be based on the deepest knowledge of the structure and operation of that system possible. Yet, it should enable rapid reaction to any anomaly detected that can foreshadow potential faults. It should also be capable of operating within a resource constrained computational environment (e.g. microcontrollers). The system of the present disclosure solves these, and other, needs.